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Preventing uptake of alpha-synuclein to slow Parkinson’s progression

Abstract. Ribosomes are central to protein synthesis in all organisms. In mammals, the ribosome functional core is highly conserved. Remarkably, two rodent species, the naked mole-rat (NMR) and tuco-tuco, display fragmented 28S ribosomal RNA (rRNA), coupled with high translational fidelity and long lifespan. The unusual ribosomal architecture in the NMR and tuco-tuco has been speculated to be linked to high translational fidelity. Here, we show, by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, that despite the fragmentation of their rRNA, NMR and tuco-tuco ribosomes retain their core functional architecture. Compared to ribosomes of the guinea pig, a phylogenetically related rodent without 28S rRNA fragmentation, ribosomes of NMR and tuco-tuco exhibit poorly resolved density for certain expansion segments. In contrast, the structure of the guinea pig ribosome shows high similarity to the human ribosome. Enhanced translational fidelity in the NMR and tuco-tuco may stem from subtle, allosteric effects in dynamics, linked to rRNA fragmentation.

Neuroscientists discover the brain’s memory center starts “full” and prunes itself down to optimize learning

Far from a blank slate, the infant brain begins with an overabundance of random neural connections. Neuroscientists discovered how trimming this excess wiring transforms the hippocampus into a powerful, structured memory machine.

Mesocorticostriatal Reinforcement Learning of State Representation and Value with Implications for the Mechanisms of Schizophrenia

Mesocorticostriatal dopamine projections are crucial for value learning, motivational control, and cognitive functions. However, while dopamine’s role in value learning as reward-prediction-error (RPE) has been much understood, precise roles in motivational control and cognitive functions remain more elusive. Computationally, this corresponds to that while the operation of mesostriatal dopamine could be minimally described by simple reinforcement learning (RL) models with one-dimensional reward/RPE and fixed state representation, how reward-specific motivational control can be achieved through heterogeneous dopamine responses, and how sophisticated cortical state representation can be formed through mesocortical dopamine, cannot be captured by such simple models.

Mars Fungi Could Make Red Planet Regolith Fertile for Crops

You’re on the fourth human mission to Mars, and you’ve been tasked with establishing the first self-sustaining food crop on a Martian settlement. You’re nervous because you’re using a new type of fungi called beneficial fungi, which you’re told will help enhance Martian regolith, enabling it to be used for growing crops. You were privately told that doing this will not only get a high school named after you, but you will successfully feed future settlers without the need to bring food from Earth. But you really only care about having your name on a high school.

Where Are All The Alien Robots? The Chilling Idea Of Von Neumann Probes

As you know, I’m obsessed about the Fermi Paradox. Where are all the aliens? But an even stranger question is: where are all the robot aliens?

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Team: Fraser Cain — @fcain / [email protected].
Jason Harmer — @jasoncharmer.
Chad Weber — [email protected].

Created by: Fraser Cain and Jason Harmer.
Edited by: Chad Weber.
Music: Left Spine Down — “X-Ray”
• Left Spine Down — Side Effect (new track 2…

If you’ve seen at least one other episode of the Guide to Space, you know I’m obsessed about the Fermi Paradox. This idea that the Universe is big and old, and should be teeming with life. And yet, we have no evidence that it exists out there.

We wonder, where are all the aliens?

Compute is the New Capital: How AI Tokens Became the Valley’s Most Powerful Currency

If you want to know what the tech world really values right now, just look at what it’s measuring. We used to obsess over lines of code, and then it was all about daily active users and engagement metrics.

But lately, I’ve been watching a pretty profound shift taking place. The industry isn’t just optimizing for headcount or dollars anymore; it’s optimizing for tokens. For the first time, cognitive output has a measurable unit cost, and this little backend metric is quietly becoming the foundational currency of the digital economy.

I just published a new piece diving into how this “token economy” is actually playing out on the ground. Right now, we’re in this wild phase where folks are flexing their token burn rates, and massive players are even trading raw compute power for startup equity.

But this brute-force volume game is just the beginning. We’re moving toward a really fascinating future where AI agents will dynamically negotiate with each other over global compute exchanges, and companies will start managing their processing power like a true financial asset. It’s an entirely new way of thinking about how we build and scale.

Treating AI as just another flat-fee software subscription probably isn’t going to cut it for much longer. The organizations that really thrive in the next decade will be the ones who figure out how to navigate this new intersection of intelligence, energy, and scale.

I put together a deep dive into how compute is becoming the new capital, and what this macroeconomic shift actually means for the rest of us. I’d love to hear your take on it—check out the full post below.


Scientists Built Synthetic Self-perpetuating Brain For Robots

Further Reading.

Self-powered analogue neuromorphic system for multimodal sensing, encoding and learning with diffusive and drift memristors.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4446

Reservoir Computing: Foundations, Advances, and Challenges Toward Neuromorphic Intelligence.
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-2688/7/2/70

Embodying physical computing into.
soft robots.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146

Artificial Nervous Systems.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles

Brain Cells Master Doom: Cortical Labs’ Biological Computer Reaches Major AI Milestone

Silicon Scoop

Flowgrammer.ca -> https://flowgrammer.ca/
AI News and Resources -> https://flowgrammers.ca.
OpenClaw Toronto -> https://openclawto.com/

Cut Costs. Boost Output. Stay Ahead.
If smarter systems can learn faster with less energy, imagine what your business can do with the right automation. Flowgrammer helps you eliminate repetitive work, reduce operational drag, and scale without hiring headaches.
Book Your Free Automation Audit.
https://flowgrammer.ca/

Startup Investor Drinks Toronto — https://startupdrinksto.com/
Toronto’s Startup Community — https://torontostarts.com/

Silicon Scoop.
Silicon Scoop Podcast — https://torontostarts.com/silicon-scoop/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bAzF0M
YouTube: • Silicon Scoop.

Startup Talk.

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